Keys To The City: 5 Character-Filled Hotels

From London to Singapore, five hotels channel the character—man-made or natural, corporate or cultural—of the place they call home.

Discover Chic Hotels Channeling Their Distinct Locales

Populus by Studio Gang, Fowler, & Wildman Chalmers Design

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The 256-room hotel in Denver is named for the aspen, Populus tremuloides, Colorado’s state tree, which also informed architect Jeanne Gang’s 13-story biophilic building. Eye-shaped windows, set deep in the GFRC facade, evoke the tree’s distinctive bark while providing solar shading, natural ventilation, and ample daylight—helping make it the nation’s first carbon-positive hotel. Helmed by Heather Wildman in partnership with creatives Emma Fowler and Michelle Fowler, the interior fit-out complements the pristine exterior with a forest-inspired palette of natural woods, textures, and finishes. Highlights include slatted-wood ceilings made from reclaimed snow fencing and, hanging in its restaurant Pasque, a sculptural installation comprising tapestrylike sheets of plant-based leather.

The Standard by DP Architects & Ministry of Design

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Behind the glittering, lenticular glass-and-aluminum facade of DP’s eight-story building, local Singapore firm Ministry of Design (MOD) has given the interiors of this 143-room addition to the fast-growing global brand a delightfully quirky vibe. Befitting the Garden City, vegetation proliferates in the form of colorful potted plants and, in the creeper-draped restaurant, a botanically inspired wallpaper mural by Thai artist Saran Yen Panya that incorporates tapestry and brocade elements. Accommodations are kept simple yet characterful, with mid-century modern–inspired furniture, ribbed-wood head-boards that rise across the ceiling to form enveloping canopies, and cheery bathrooms entirely lined with checkered yellow-and-white tile.

Casa Loma Beach Hotel by Electric Bowery

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The Venice, California–based studio’s redesign of a 1980’s hotel taps into the community’s slightly raffish creative heritage while celebrating the 70-key boutique property’s peerless clifftop location and ocean views. Overlooking the lobby bar and lounge, a wall-spanning plaster bas-relief depicting a sun-worshiping goddess symbolizes the Pacific Coast as a natural wonder. Laguna Beach’s colors and textures are reflected in a palette of sandy neutrals, earth tones, and seashore greens, while custom wood furniture, red clay–fired tile, and woven textiles join original terra-cotta floors in nodding to its craft traditions. And there’s a hint of classic surfboard culture in the smooth shapes and bold graphics of guest-room furnishings.

Hotel Saint Augustine by Lake Flato Architects & Post Company

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Taking cues from the residential Houston neighborhood—including the Menil Collection cultural campus—Interior Design Hall of Fame member firm Lake Flato divides the 71-room hotel into five small, two-story buildings connected by bridges and walkways. Gray brick and combed-wood siding complement both the nearby Menil and the area’s leafy natural landscape. Post Company’s interiors honor the city’s artistic heritage, with the lobby deliberately evoking a curator’s private home. Comprising a series of open seating groups for intimate gatherings throughout the day, the space is outfitted with backlit display shelving that conjures the spirit of collecting. Playful furnishings, ebonized-oak flooring, and velvety textures combine to give accommodations an urbane, inventive edge.

Club Quarters Hotel by Holloway Li

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Housed in a landmarked 1913 Beaux-Arts building in London—originally a bank, then the Gracechurch Street Hotel—the 203-key property’s renovated interior honors the heritage architecture while introducing contemporary flair. The local firm drew inspiration from early modernism for the handsomely understated millwork, whose clean lines and muted palette offer a pleasing contrast to the historic envelope’s ornate details and sumptuous materials. The self-check-in desk’s fluted oak and polished travertine links it to the adjacent double-height lobby and lounge, a versatile space of built-in banquettes, flexible seating, and lamp-lit library tables—overhung by a custom octagonal pendant fixture—that morphs from coworking hub by day to living room by night.